Mayor Coleen J. Seng today announced that Lincoln’s crime rate, which reflects
the number of crimes per capita, fell 5.3 percent in 2006 compared to 2005. Overall,
crime in Lincoln dropped 4 percent last year, the fifth consecutive year of declining
crime in Lincoln. Crime in Lincoln has been down eight of the past 10 years, and
it has dropped steadily since 1991.

The crime statistics are compiled by the Lincoln Police Department as part of
the FBI’s national Uniform Crime Reporting program which tracks murder, rape,
robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, auto theft and larceny theft. Police Chief
Tom Casady said Lincoln’s violent crime rate fell 10.6 percent, in contrast to the
national trend of increasing violent crime in 2005 and the first half of 2006.
The property crime rate fell 4.7 percent.

“We are very fortunate that crime in our city has decreased over the past
decade despite our fairly significant population growth,” said Mayor Seng. “The
partnerships our police department has developed with agencies, groups and individual
citizens are making a difference. The members of our Police Department have an
impressive reputation as problem-solvers. These results reflect the hard work,
productivity and commitment of the women and men of the department.”

Casady said a 46 percent increase in arrests by Lincoln police officers during
the past decade is a a significant factor in the continuing decline in crime.
“The number of police officers per capita in Lincoln continues to be the smallest
in Nebraska and one of the smallest in the country,” said Casady. “During the
past decade, we have added the equivalent of the City of Kearney to Lincoln’s
population. It would be difficult to find a police department anywhere with the
kind of productivity in criminal investigations and arrests that the Lincoln Police
Department maintains.”

Crime data are reported to the FBI by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies
nationwide and serve as the basis for most published crime statistics, crime rate
comparisons and historical comparisons of crime reported to the police in the U.S.